Chaowai Men

Beijing, China

Architects: 9.3 GROUP

Year: 2006

Chaowai Men

This building is located in downtown Beijing's Central Business District. The urban environment around the site is representing various architectural characters. The theme of "Unity and Diversity" is a particular challenge in this architectural and urban context. A twin tower was adopted to make up the city block and form the inner garden courtyard. The architects created this common area with wooden terraces, offering an invitation to sit down and drink tea on the roof of the commercial space. The building complex is composed for several functionalities, such as office, apartment and commercial. The building layout demonstrates the architect's intention to organize these functional areas in such a way that they can be turned into a series of flats without much difficulty.

A classical building façade has been adopted instead of a glass curtain wall system in aims of building cost and energy saving. The façade system is based on a 2,1 meter grid and is making use of only three types of windows. At the same time the shape and colour contrast creates a distinctive architectural character.

Info:

Location: Chaoyang Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing

Total Floor Area: 13.680 sqm

Built Area: 12.000 sqm

Floor Ratio: 5.77

Design Time: 2002-2004

Time of Completion: 2006

Author: 9.3 Group, Strategy Architectural Design Co., Ltd

Consultants: Otto Steidle and Martin Klein